Review: Dish Network now fixes iPhones, at your home

Updated 6:05 pm, Sunday, May 15, 2016

Dish employee Johnson Chuong takes apart an iPhone to fix a cracked screen on site in the Chronicle building.

Dish employee Johnson Chuong takes apart an iPhone to fix a cracked screen on site in the Chronicle building.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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An iPhone is taken apart to fix a cracked screen.

An iPhone is taken apart to fix a cracked screen.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

Review: Dish Network now fixes iPhones, at your home

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Dish Network, the satellite TV company, is now in the iPhone repair business.

No, Dish Network is not giving up on its main line of work.

But it does have an army of trained technicians who know a little something about equipment, and they aren’t installing satellite service as often as before. The Colorado company hooked up 9 percent fewer new pay-TV customers in the most recent quarter than it did during the same period last year.

And think about it: For many of the people who are cutting the cord with traditional pay-TV services, their smartphone is their new television screen.

So as crazy as a smartphone repair service initially sounded, it does make sense that Dish Network began sending its technicians this month to wherever you are — at home, the office, the coffee shop or the gym — to fix your smartphone’s broken screen or failing battery. And you don’t have to be a current customer. The service covers iPhones now, but Dish plans to expand to other brands over time.

“With the launch of Smart Home Services, we’ve gradually expanded our technicians’ skill set to include TV, audio and in-home wireless network installation,” Dish spokeswoman Chelsea Satkowiak said in an email. “The launch of Smart Phone Repair is the next step in this progression.”

We tested the service last week, replacing a badly cracked screen on a Chronicle columnist’s iPhone 6 and the failing battery on my iPhone 5S. The service cost $208.98 for the two phones, including $119.99 for the screen replacement, $39.99 for the battery replacement and sales tax.

The cost also included a $35 “drive to me” fee, since both devices were handled in one call.

You can find comparable, even cheaper, smartphone repair in the Bay Area. Apple’s own service is $109 to repair the screen on an iPhone 6 still under warranty ($299 if the warranty has expired).

Easy set-up

But the Dish service was easy to set up. Using the website (www.dish.com/smart-phone-repair) to schedule service Tuesday morning, we found appointments available in the afternoon, but chose to schedule a two-hour window the following day.

The best part was that we didn’t have to schedule time at an Apple Store and wait several hours — or days — for our phones to be repaired. And we found a certain peace of mind not worrying about our private data being compromised in the back repair room. Dish’s representative performed the work right in front of our eyes.

Dish field service specialist Johnson Chuong didn’t know he’d be part of a story when he showed up at The Chronicle. But he immediately impressed us with his knowledge and expertise.

Replacing the cracked screen was not as easy as snapping off the old screen and snapping on a new. We watched Chuong work like a surgeon to meticulously remove then lay out dozens of tiny screws and other parts in a certain order, left to right, across the table so he’d know exactly where they went. This is not something most us should try at home.

Chuong said Dish trained him and other technicians for two days to take apart and reassemble the different iPhones the company repairs. For now, the service handles iPhone 5, 5C, 5S, 6 and 6 Plus, but Dish plans to add other models and other brands eventually.

Staying in practice

Chuong practices on some of his own old phones at home. “Once in a while, when I have a little bit of time, I take one apart and put it back together, just to keep it fresh in my head,” he said.

The one caveat is that Dish does not use Apple replacement parts, because Apple doesn’t sell original equipment to outsiders. And getting repairs done by someone not authorized by Apple can void the device’s warranty.

However, Dish says it is using the best replacement parts available, and the service includes a 60-day warranty. Both the replacement screen and the battery worked just fine after the repairs.

We had the iPhone 6 repaired in about an hour, while replacing the iPhone 5S battery took about 30 minutes. Chuong probably would have been quicker had we not constantly pestered him with questions. But he said it’s common for customers to ask about the work.

It’s also common for people to crack their screens. Chuong said he’s often asked if Dish can fix broken iPads. (Not yet.)

Dish figures there are millions of devices in the U.S. that need fixing. The company says its technicians visit 20,000 homes a day, and they can reach every ZIP code in the country.

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That should keep Chuong and his fellow technicians busy, even if nobody’s watching TV anymore.

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